Byron Stewart

What advice do you have for people with a few years of experience in social media who want to take their career to the next level?
Working in social, you wear so many different hats, and there are a few areas that you can either focus on or potentially transition to. One is brand. Social media professionals are typically the brand stewards of a brand. They're on the front lines of what's happening with a brand. They're seeing customer reactions, they're listening to conversations brands are involved in, and staying on top of pop culture. I always argue that social media professionals understand their brand the best. So you can focus more on brand strategy and getting into brand marketing. You may not technically execute on a social level, but you still think brand first. You can still be creative. I think that's an easy transition from social.

The leveling-up piece is you have to think on an enterprise level. It's very easy to think super small, and I've learned that throughout my career. For example, if you’re running social for a retail brand, there are a ton of cross-functional teams you have to work with on a day-to-day basis. Social literally sits in the middle of everything. You get a great wealth of knowledge and you need to be able to communicate that to leadership—that you understand the business.

When I was at Foot Locker, what really helped elevate me was thinking on an enterprise level and how my social media strategy can help push the business forward. For example, I was listening to investor calls. I was listening to town hall meetings where leadership was expressing where we're at as a business and areas of opportunity. I would take what I learned from those meetings and tailor my social strategy around that to make a real business impact. So on top of the cool content I was creating, I could point back to the real, measurable impact of the work I was doing to leadership. At the end of the day, your leadership wants to see results, so think from an enterprise level of how you can push the business forward.

What are some of your favorite social media campaigns you’ve worked on in the fashion industry?
One thing I'm super proud of is creating what is now called employee-generated content. At Foot Locker, I would always go to the stores with my team and make content, and I quickly realized that the employees are very cool and they're actually the ideal consumer. They're usually young and hip and know what's going on. So, it felt like a great opportunity to feature them as brand ambassadors, and a lot of them are content creators themselves. So we transformed the store employees into content creators to speak about key products throughout the year.

I created a program where we would tap employees to make content across the country. They would do unboxings for sneaker releases. They would jump on TikTok or IG Reels trends. They would also sometimes get featured in campaigns that we were shooting on a brand level.

It was literally something that I started just from my gut. The brand gave me the keys to run their social, and at that time Foot Locker didn't have a strong TikTok presence. It had under 3,000 followers. And lo and behold, I grew the account from 3,000 to 1.5 million followers based on that strategy alone. That strategy's still going on today, so shout-out to the team that's currently there. That's something I can say I was on a bit early with because now everyone's doing employee-generated content.

Byron Stewart directing Stephen Curry at Foot Locker. 

Team Epiphany recently wrapped up a campaign with Sorel Footwear. They just released their new Callsign Horizon sneaker, which is like a hybrid sneaker-boot. They wanted to make a big splash and do something stunty around New York Fashion Week to really drive energy around the release. The brand narrative around the shoe was born from ice. So, we came up with this idea of life-sized ice blocks with the shoes living inside of them—with real ice. We set up about five huge ice blocks with each colorway of the Sorel Callsign Horizon. We put them in key locations around New York City. We got some really good organic pickup. We did a partnership with Highsnobiety as well for some coverage. We also worked with a ton of creators to create content; they received the shoe and made some cool content about styling the shoe and checking out the ice blocks around the city. It got a ton of great engagement, great PR, and conversation. So, super proud of that.

Do you think you need to live in a fashion hub, like NYC or Paris, in order to build a career in social media in the fashion industry?
You can do it from anywhere technically, but I would definitely say if you live in a fashionable city or in a city with a ton of culture, you feed off it. I've been blessed to work in New York City and just stepping outside, meeting people, or going to different events has inspired my taste, which has also informed my work. You can't get that everywhere. No disrespect to Montana, but you're not gonna get this. I would guarantee you that the person who’s in NYC probably has a leg up on the person working in Montana. I definitely think if you wanna work in fashion you should be in those cultural hubs, not just because that's your best chance of getting a job, but I think it makes you a better all-around person and marketer.

How did you get your start working in social media?
I started with a marketing major in school and then I had an internship at an agency. It was a creative agency in Princeton, New Jersey. I will never forget this. My manager at the time sort of had a vision and he told me and a couple of my peers that you guys should focus on social media because that will be the future of marketing. This is at the time when Facebook was just popular among college students and younger adults before it really scaled. Instagram had just launched. So it was very, very early. When he said that, I was like, “No way. You're telling me that these platforms that we’re literally using for fun and to socialize are going to be a career?” I didn't believe him, but he was right.

My first year out of school, I worked at Quidsi; it was a subsidiary of Amazon at the time. I was a marketing associate there and one of the jobs I had was managing their Twitter and Facebook. That was my first introduction to managing social accounts for a major brand. It taught me that I had an interest in building community, interacting with a brand's audience, and just to really humanize the brand.

But I knew this wasn't my career path. I wanted to get into fashion. I wanted to get into sneaker culture. At that time, I had a blog with my twin brother called Identical Fly, and that was doing pretty well locally. It actually caught the eye of the marketing director at Jimmy Jazz, which is a now defunct sneaker, athletic, and apparel retailer. A position had opened for social media coordinator. He reached out to me and was like, “Yo, I like your blog. Would you be interested in this position?” And I was like yeah, this is my chance to get into the industry. Jimmy Jazz is where I really got my feet wet and learned the ins and outs of the footwear industry and retail overall.

I was clocking, like, 60 hours a week. I had so many different responsibilities, from writing copy to pulling products from the warehouse so that we could shoot content with photographers and stylists. I was also building relationships with different brands, like Nike, Puma, and even Ralph Lauren. At night, they did events every other week, so I would help set up events. I got a shit ton of experience doing everything as a social media coordinator, and it was the most rewarding experience. It prepared me for where I'm at today.

The marketing director at Jimmy Jazz reached out to you because of your blog. That’s really notable—can you speak to how having your own thing can actually help you land jobs?
Absolutely, I think it’s valuable to have a self-created platform of your own, especially in today's landscape because it's hyper competitive. We understand the type of job market that we're in across industries and it's valuable to show a potential employer your skillset.

I'm not saying you need to have one million followers—everyone's not gonna have one million followers. You don't need that to be effective. You just need to show what you're capable of. If you're a content creator and you love fashion or you love beauty, create content around that. Do it as a passion project. You never know who's watching and people get an idea of your taste, creativity, and storytelling. I think that will separate you from the pack if you're trying to interview.

What are some misconceptions about working in social media?
One of the misconceptions I can't stand is the idea that an intern is running a brand’s account—it's not an intern job. Social media, in my opinion, is the most important function of a brand. We know that TikTok and Instagram are platforms for discovery now. When a consumer is interested in a brand, they don't go to its website; they look it up on TikTok and on Instagram. I think the misconception is that it's an afterthought, but it's a core function of a brand that will continue to evolve over the years. And this is just the beginning, as crazy as it sounds.

In your opinion, where is social media heading?
I think social media is going to be number one. It's gonna be the most important marketing function for a brand. You cannot be a successful brand without a strong social media presence. It's not always about going viral. It's about building a strong community and creating the type of content that resonates and can capture attention because we are living in this attention economy. I think leaders are starting to realize that. A perfect example is what we're seeing with Duolingo. The big conversation was the investment that Duolingo was putting into their social team with all the open roles and how much they were willing to pay.

I think you'll see more social media leadership. Right now, you'll have a director that is, essentially, the highest title or maybe senior director. But I do feel like we will reach the point where we'll have more VPs of social media, not VPs of marketing, but VPs of social media. I also feel like the next wave of CMOs will have social media backgrounds. I do believe that because of my point about wearing so many hats working on social. That experience is invaluable and you will be able to use that as you become more of a robust leader in your career.

Byron, thanks for sitting down with Careers in Fashion and sharing your experience with everyone!